Ever notice the duality within—one part moving you forward, another pulling you back? Parts work, also known as IFS therapy, turns this inner tension into an opportunity for real change. Learn how embracing your duality leads to self leadership and lasting healing.

IFS vs Traditional Talk Therapy: Why Parts Work Goes Deeper
Tired of talk therapy that helps you understand your patterns—but not change them? In this post, Bethany Russell, MA, LPC, breaks down how Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy goes beyond coping strategies to heal the parts of you that traditional therapy often overlooks. Learn why your anxious, people-pleasing, or shutdown responses aren’t flaws—they’re protectors. And discover why working with your internal system creates lasting transformation.

There are two versions of you. There's the you that knows you're safe, worthy, and capable of healthy relationships—calm, grounded, and wise. Then there's the you that panics when your partner doesn't text back, abandons yourself to keep others happy, or shuts down the moment conflict arises. Traditional therapy treats both versions like they're the same person. IFS knows better. Your trauma responses aren't character flaws—they're protective parts trying to keep you safe. Here's why parts work changes everything for trauma survivors...

I'm going to tell you something that might sting a little.

If you're someone who says yes when you mean no, who agrees to keep the peace, who shape-shifts depending on who you're with—people can sense it. And on some level, they don't trust you.

Not because you're a bad person. But because they can feel that you're not being real with them.

Your fawn response might be keeping you safe, but it's also keeping people at arm's length.

[Read More]

I've been thinking about this pattern I keep seeing with my clients.

They've built incredible things. Successful businesses, impressive careers, the kind of life that looks amazing from the outside. And they come to me saying some version of the same thing:

"I should be happy. I have everything I thought I wanted. But I feel... empty."

The part that gets me is how guilty they feel about it. Like they're ungrateful or broken for not feeling fulfilled by their success.

But here's what I've learned: achievement doesn't automatically heal your inner world.

Self-sovereignty gets hijacked in six core ways: blended parts, survival-mode nervous systems, attachment wounds, ancestral trauma, emotional outsourcing, and soul-level patterns. This guide explores how these hijackers show up—and how to reclaim your power through IFS, somatic healing, and spiritual integration.